2017 Autumn Budget - the political reaction

Chancellor Philip Hammond delivered the 2017 Autumn Budget to the House of Commons, pledging to ‘seize the opportunities that lie within our grasp’ and ‘build on Britain’s global success story’.

Leaders of the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats commented on forecasts and figures outlined in the Chancellor’s Budget speech.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn denounced the Budget as a ‘record of failure with a forecast of more to come’.

Mr Corbyn continued: ‘We have had the rhetoric of a long-term economic plan that never meets its targets when what all too many are experiencing is long-term economic pain – and the hardest hit are disabled people, single parents and women.’

Meanwhile, commenting on official forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) that reveal that the UK economy will be £45 billion smaller in 2021 than previously predicted, the Liberal Democrats stated that Britain has ‘gone from top of the growth league to deep into the relegation zone, with each person set to be £687 worse off per year’.

Vince Cable, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, commented that the OBR has ‘revised down future earnings, productivity and household consumption’.

He continued: ‘The worst part is much of this damage is self-inflicted, with the hard Brexit this government is pursuing.’